


don't let your dreams be dreams

by nonamebut



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Attempt at Humor, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan & Na Jaemin Are Best Friends, M/M, ft chaeyeon and nako, side markhyuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 12:48:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20489135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonamebut/pseuds/nonamebut
Summary: Just do it!





	don't let your dreams be dreams

**Author's Note:**

> i will edit this work and maybe add cuter a/n later but for now have some wacky hijinks ye

Jaemin should have known better. What was he thinking, spilling his weirdest dreams to his college blockmates? They're all taking Theories of Personality this term, for God's sake. Of course they were going to fucking Freud his dreams up.

But Jaemin, unfortunately, does not possess any kind of functioning foresight, so he only gets an inkling of the damage he's done when he finishes summarizing his latest night time escapade: a very R-rated, painful dream that felt like it lasted centuries even though Jaemin's sure he only slept for, like, three hours max.

"... So the dream continued the whole torture thing." Jaemin waves his hands around vaguely, leaning forward to take a quick sip of his iced coffee, his tongue struggling to capture his (very well bitten) straw. Across him, Chaeyeon takes pity and pushes the cup closer to him.

"But I told my dream I wasn't anyone's bitch, right? 'This is my playhouse and you're just living in it!' Or something to that effect." Dramatic pause. "Then it's like the sky cleared up and the forces that were piercing me disappeared. And I remembered that essay of a prayer Mark keeps reciting after every horror movie marathon we have, so after chanting that thing I asked: what's your name, dream demon?"

Donghyuck must notice how his hands start shaking in his lap, because Donghyuck suddenly presses their shoulder together, lingering instead of pulling away, and gasps. "You fucking prayed?"

God bless you, Lee Donghyuck. "That's not the important part here! The important part was that my mouth opened and it's like the devil spoke through me? I said something like, _ your secret desire _, in a super duper deep voice, then after that I suddenly barked? I made a bunch of really high pitched barks after that."

Everyone around the table hums. Some of the other customers sitting at nearby tables give them all strange looks, but honestly? Talking about damning, explicit fantasies is not the most outrageous thing that can happen before 9am at a fast food joint right next to a college campus.

Jaemin glances at Nako, who has been strangely silent for a while now. "Nako? What are your thoughts?" From the corner of his eye, he sees Donghyuck mouth the words 'take one for the team!'

Nako paws at the gum wrapper on the table, not looking up as she slowly speaks. Jaemin is reminded of a nervous kitten, biding its time, waiting for some opportunity. Whatever that opportunity is.

"Well... it's probably about a desire you are in denial of having, right?" There's an audible sigh of relief. "So after all the trials you experienced, it's like you had the courage to acknowledge it and ask for its 'name.'"

"What Nako means to say is: have you finally accepted your deepest, darkest kink, Jaemin?" Donghyuck flutters his lashes.

Chaeyeon snorts. "What do you think, Donghyuck?" She and Nako meaningfully glance at each other. "He's asking us what the dream means, after all."

"Ah. Well, maybe he just wants some reassurance, then?"

Not following the conversation at all, Jaemin lets out a high pitched whine. "I just want to know if I'm going crazy!"

"You're not crazy, Jaemin," says Donghyuck with a soft giggle. "You're just... well, to put it lightly..."

Chaeyeon says, so very delicately, "someone with a kink for obedience?"

The very idea of himself being blatantly _ not _ vanilla makes Jaemin stare at her in disbelief, _ just because dogs are cute loyal things doesn't mean that _—

"A furry," Nako suggests brightly, suddenly sitting up real straight in her seat. "Yeah, that's the word I was looking for!"

It must have been the same word that's been echoing in both Chaeyeon and Donghyuck's minds, because then they both burst into full on laughter. Nako's lips curl up, pleased: cat got the cream.

Wait. _ Cat _?

"Oh fuck," Jaemin laments. It only makes his friends laugh even harder.

/

In a poor attempt to make Jaemin feel better about his belated revelation, Donghyuck shares a weird dream of his own. The gesture normally would have soothed Jaemin for even a tiny bit, if he had actually paid attention half the time.

Jaemin only zones back in after a total life reevaluation—after reviewing all the times he mentally equated Nako to a cat, when he called Johnny and Seulgi papa and mama bear, even that time he briefly dated Heejin and referred to her as his cute bunny—and manages to catch the last of the dream discussion.

"And then Mark came in, and he had that headband Jaemin gave me last Christmas."

Nako gasps, only further humoring Donghyuck's dramatics. "Hey," Chaeyeon says shrewdly, her eyes narrowing. Nothing gets past this girl, huh? "I remember you saying that was your favorite headband. I've never seen you wear it, though...?"

Donghyuck nods indulgently. "Yeah, it is! I just wear it all the time at home, especially when I need to clean the house."

"_ Only _ at home? Or your dorm?"

"Gosh, Chae, you have a theory on this already?" Jaemin jumps into the conversation easily, as if he wasn't just questioning everything he knew to be true. (He's had a lot of experience with that. Big thanks to his professors right there.)

"I mean, it makes sense that Mark would have the special item, since you guys are obsessed with each other," Nako says, her tone light but considering. "But I don't understand why the item is... headbands in the first place? Why were we all giving Donghyuck headbands at Everland?"

Everyone watches Chaeyeon stuff the last of the fries into her mouth before she continues. "Think about it. You know how Jaehyun's going to move out of the dorm next term?"

"Yeah, but how does my roommate leaving have anything to do with me accepting my favorite headband from Mark?"

Chaeyeon shrugs. "I mean, the headband isn't really a headband, right? Maybe it's a stand in for something—like it symbolizes domesticity, since you only ever wear it at home."

Another theatrical gasp from Nako. Donghyuck does that thing where he clasps his hands together, bringing them to his chest in a moment of vulnerability.

Feeling a sense of camaraderie (and okay, fine, he feels like he owes it to the guy after his little helping hand from earlier) Jaemin stands up with a loud screech of his plastic chair. "Alright ladies, we've got a class in a few minutes. We'll see you later for org chem lab, yeah?"

It's not a flimsy excuse by any means, but Chaeyeon still snorts.

The moment the boys set foot out of the establishment and start heading for their campus liberal arts building, Donghyuck quickly ambushes Jaemin with a disarming grin.

"Soooo." He nudges Jaemin coyly. "What did you think?"

"Of your vanilla ass dream?" Jaemin evades. "Not much, really. Didn't think you were into that whole kind of thing, knowing how extra you can get."

The suggestion makes Donghyuck scoff, temporarily distracts him. "You're just jealous I am in a very committed, loving relationship and you aren't. Mark is nice to me and who do you have?" Loud silence. "Yeah, that's right, I thought so."

Jaemin rolls his eyes. "Yeah, okay, fine. Whatever. Anyway, about that homework due next week—"

"Wooaahh, wait no!" Ouch, Donghyuck really knows the worst place to pinch a guy. "You're not going to change the topic like that. I'm pretty much the only person you can talk to about your Jeno problems so be grateful I'm so willing to help out!"

Maybe the rapid fire reply draws too much suspicion, but Jaemin is horrible at keeping his cool when it comes to his long time best friend. "Jeno problems? I don't have any. We're fine, we're good."

All further attempts to steer the conversation away from cute samoyed like boys are systematically shut down by complete silence. Unimpressed, Donghyuck doesn't budge until Jaemin sighs and volunteers the truth on his own.

"Okay, fine. I feel really weird asking him for help lately, you know? With finals and everything, I just don't want to distract him from his _ own _ work. I don't even know how he's helped me in the past and juggled his own stuff, now that I think about it..."

Donghyuck _ aahhhs _ good naturedly. "That's Jeno for you, huh? You really shouldn't worry about that kind of stuff, Nana. He's good at studying and he really, really doesn't mind helping you, if his past behavior is anything to go by."

"That's true," Jaemin allows. "But still. I just want to, maybe, I don't know? Just give him a few Jaemin free weeks?"

"But why?" Donghyuck suddenly gets closer, far closer than he normally does. Which is saying something, knowing how clingy the two of them can get. "Did you... realize something recently? You've always been together, so why change that now?"

That's... well, Jaemin hasn't really thought about that. Donghyuck does what he does best and translates Jaemin's nonanswer into words. "Do you think you guys are... like, overexposing yourselves to each other or something?"

"Maybe?" For some reason Jaemin thinks of that really sad film he watched with Jeno when they were around ten years old. The one where the dog's owner died but it kept coming back to the station and waiting for a companion who would never come.

There's a loud snort; Jaemin must have said some of that aloud by accident, since Donghyuck suddenly laughs the way he did at the fast food restaurant. "My god. It really is Leo season, you dramatic ass bitch."

"Like you're any better, _ bitch _."

Donghyuck seems satisfied with what he's gotten out of Jaemin—for now, at least—so now a comfortable quiet languishes between the two of them. Jaemin's about to thank him for listening so patiently when Donghyuck ruins the moment.

"I have no idea why you guys don't just talk to each other..." Uh, yeah, no. _ Just because you and Mark are confrontational as fuck doesn't mean everyone else has to be. _ "... I mean, it's about time? Why don't you guys just tell each other you like one another, for real?"

"WOAH, wait, no." Jaemin stomps on Donghyuck's foot mercilessly. He ignores the other boy's cry. "You did _ not _ just go there..."

Jaemin is so sick and tired of everyone trying to force this whole mess along! He's not an idiot, for crying out loud. He likes Jeno, and Jeno probably likes him back. (At this point, it's not probably, but definitely. Jeno is generally nice to everyone but is everyone Na Jaemin?)

It seems like the universe is on Jaemin's side today, because just as they walk past the engineering building, an opportunity arises for Jaemin to pull total petty revenge.

"Yeah, Jeno, don't worry, I'm sure he's fine..." A familiar voice comes from their left, and Jaemin's face must light up—or turn devilish, or whatever Donghyuck thinks his expression may be—because then Donghyuck pouts and says, "Oh my god Jaemin noooooo—"

"Hey, Mark hyung!" Donghyuck tries to elbow him out of the way, but the truth must come out. Mark looks up at them after he seems to end a call. "Donghyuck wants you to move in with him."

"Wait, what?" Mark literally stops mid motion, phone hovering awkwardly in the air.

"I will _ end _ you, Na Jaemin," Donghyuck hisses in his ear, but he's quickly tugged away by the wrist by his very doting boyfriend, who quickly recovered from his moment of shock and is now probably curious about what the whole indirect roommate proposal meant.

"Hey, Jaemin." Before they get too far away, Mark turns from Donghyuck's flushing red face with a strange urgency. "Jeno's in the library, by the way. I think he wants to talk to you."

/

Jaemin braces himself as he reaches the floor specified in Jeno's suspicious texts. The library isn't as busy at this time of the day, especially at one of its higher levels, so at least not a lot of people will be here to witness Jaemin's inevitable breakdown.

On the bright side, this also means that there's ample opportunity to maybe, _ I don't know _. Make out somewhere without much judgement.

(That's if Jeno wants, of course. Can't get ahead too head, no sir.)

Jeno waves cutely at him from his spot at the corner, sitting at one of the tables by the floor-to-ceiling windows. "Glad you could make it."

Shuffling his backpack onto the empty side of the tabletop, Jaemin smiles nervously. "What did you need to talk to me about?"

"Uhhh, it's not bad, don't worry."

"Well, that's reassuring." Jeno laughs at whatever face Jaemin's pulling.

"No, really. It's just... well, Mark told me to just confront you about it if it's bothering me so much." Jaemin snorts. Typical Mark and his typical forwardness. "So I guess, here I am, asking you. Are you okay?"

A blink. Then a second, and a third. "Huh? Yeah, I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

Without warning, Jeno leans in real close and cups Jaemin's cheek. His thumb lingers awkwardly before it runs a gentle line below the crease of Jaemin's eye. "You don't look like you're sleeping well, and we never go out to eat dinner together anymore... I just hope you're not overworking yourself, you know?"

Audible gulp. Jaemin hopes Jeno can't feel the sudden thundering of his pulse, the way his heart starts beating mad crazy with the proximity. "I'm just fine, Jeno." He manages to speak, even though every word that tumbles out of his mouth makes him feel like he's experiencing a real lucid dream. This shit can't possibly be happening right now! "You know finals week can get. It's crunch time, am I right?"

Jeno doesn't seem totally convinced, but he removes his hand from Jaemin's face and nods to himself a little. (If Jaemin is being honest himself, he's a little bit disappointed with the lack of contact. This disappointment is pretty short lived since Jeno seems to sense his weird distress and takes one of his hands in his.)

"I guess so. But you know you can ask me for help, right? We can study together or something. You know how well we work when we use flashcards on each other."

_ Well, yeah _ , Jaemin doesn't have the heart to say, to admit. _ How well _ I _ perform on _ my _ exams when you help _ me _ with flashcards. Singular, one way relationship right there. _

Instead, Jaemin tries another approach. "I guess so," Jaemin mimics. "But you have to give me the flashcards you make too! I want to help you, in return."

Jeno frowns. "You already do, though? Don't worry about that..."

He laughs airily, the way he always does when he's about to make a lighthearted comment about something most people praise him about. (Jaemin knows that laugh all too well, the sound triggering an almost Pavlovian response in him. He's always simultaneously adored and despised Jeno's humility.)

"Studying my stuff is easier on my own, since it's just math, you know? It's a pretty solitary thing?" Here, Jeno points at his head with a cute little sound effect.

Jaemin tries not to cry. (At the sheer cuteness Jeno possess or the total fail at trying to be a good friend, Jaemin does not know.) "Are you sure? It always feels like..." _ Oh man, Donghyuck, your advice better be right. _ "It feels like I never help you? Or at least, even if I do, it doesn't match up to the big help you're always giving me."

The admission prompts another soft Jeno noise. Jaemin absolutely, completely refuses to think of puppies. No samoyed mental images at all, no sir.

"Okay," Jeno allows. "Maybe you don't really help me with studies... but that's okay. You've done so much for me otherwise, though? You literally feed me. You listen to me when I need to let my concerns out... and just so you know, you're the only person I can ever do that with. Also, you always seem to have some kind of seventh sense for when I need to destress. If anything, I feel like I'm the one who doesn't do enough for you, Jaemin."

Huh.

"Do you really think that way?" Jaemin squeezes Jeno's hand. "I never thought that... you would ever consider it like that. All that stuff is nothing."

"Yeah, to _ you _." A tiny giggle. "Just like all that studying stuff... is pretty much nothing to me, too, don't you think?"

_ Huh _.

"That's fair."

Instead of a giggle, Jeno goes for a full body laugh this time. Jaemin looks around a little nervously to find that everyone who was sitting in earshot must have vacated their seats. "Yeah, it is. Because that's just how we work."

There's a bit of a heavy silence before Jeno sighs. "Now, what? Don't tell me there's something else bothering you."

Well. There's no turning back at this point. Jaemin finds himself blurting it all out—what's been keeping him up at night, even haunting him throughout his dreams. (No, not his homework.)

"Is it dumb? Is it unhealthy? Is it bad that I like how kind you are to me? How I'm always relying on you to be there for me, to reach out a hand and tell me it's okay when I mess up?"

Jeno blinks. Then blinks a second time, then a third. "Why wouldn't it be?"

Jaemin pouts.

Another sigh. "Jaemin, this is what I've been trying to tell you... it's more than fine. If you like it when you can lean on me then I like that you like it."

Jaemin needs time to process that last sentence and definitely not just because of the weird structure. "Are you saying you like my needy ass?"

Oh, Jeno. Reliable, kind Jeno. Jeno who rises up to Jaemin's challenge—surpasses Jaemin's expectations, really. "Nah. I guess what I'm saying is that I love you, and I hope that you'll continue to let me." Jeno falters a little, and the tiny slip up only makes Jaemin fall even more. "Let me love you, I guess?"

Jaemin is definitely not crying. "Dummy. Of course I will." If Jaemin actually started crying he would be sniffling now. "Let me love you too?"

Jeno's other hand comes up to cup Jaemin's cheek again, to wipe phantom tears. "Let's love each other for a long time." The words are kind of awkward, almost childlike, but Jaemin wouldn't have it any other way.

/

("And what do we say to Freud sunbaenim?" Chaeyeon asks sweetly as she submerges that last of the test tubes into the water. Usually their professor is more than anal about lab experiments behavior but today she's quite distracted by the new lab technician down the hall.

"Thanks for being such a freak, Freud sunbaenim." Donghyuck blows a kiss to the peeling ceiling paint. "Without you Mark wouldn't be moving in with me next term."

Jaemin snorts, quickly labeling their test tubes before Chaeyeon finishes collecting the last of the gas. "If only Nako were here to see you now, Donghyuck. She's the one who always encouraged us to share our weird ass dreams. Bet she'd feel pretty validated right now."

They all laugh. "Aw, Jaemin," Chaeyeon says as they make their way back to their assigned lab space. "The question is: are _ you _ feeling pretty validated right now?"

"No, no, nooooo." Donghyuck starts laughing again, and if he keeps this up maybe their professor really will come in and scold them for how loud they're becoming. "Rather: have you accepted your deepest, darkest secret, Jaeminie? Your secret kink for the cutest human doggo?"

Jaemin rolls his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. My cute puppy of a best friend is no longer that." Dramatic ass pause. It makes Donghyuck mumble _ such a Leo _ under his breath. "He's now my cute puppy of a boyfriend, bitches."

The yells Chaeyeon and Donghyuck let out really do make their professor come back into the room. Seeing the various emotions that passes through his friend's faces has already made up for the scolding they're about to endure.)

x x x x x x x

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading! kinda on a time crunch rn so i'll probably edit the notes later oof but i just rly wanted to say i hope u enjoy your weekend and i appreciate you if you made it this far


End file.
